Subscribe (via RSS) to this post's comment thread. (What does this mean? Here's a quick introduction.)

July 4, 2004

HomePosted by Teresa at 06:36 PM * 74 comments

I’ve just returned from driving Jim Macdonald home. That’s the last of the moving. Now for the unpacking, bestowing, reassembling, and reshelving. My computer, for instance: Patrick got it set up while I was away. Hello, World.

To the list of Hugely Appreciated Helpful Persons add the mighty Julia of Sisyphus Shrugged, who among other things turns out to be startlingly inventive about packing solutions. I thought I was a bodger, but Julia rules.

Oh, I'm so glad you're all done and settled. We thought of you tonight when Danny and the girls capered about blowing things up. We dedicated at least a couple to you; perhaps you can smell the gunpowder drifting east?

Dave - I'm more than a little creeped out by how similar all of the comments seem to be in tone and wording. -twitch-

The posters here do a valiant job of trying to find variations, but there are only so many ways to say "Hey, cool news." Which is really the only response to that message, if you're a PublishAmerica partisan.

I mean, really. Let's not get too carried away with the whack-the-vanity-press thing, here.

Oh, and I'm glad to hear that the Giant Move is completed, and everybody's home safe.

Meanwhile, the joints in my hands are still so stiff and sore that I can't make a fist, and my right arm and hand keep randomly doing the pins-and-needles numb thing. Breakfast is in doubt -- no utensils, no salt and pepper, no many other elements. On the other hand, it turns out that Nick's, the diner a block away on 4th, is a very tolerable little neighborhood joint in the NYC style: low prices, menu items from five or six different cuisines, and they do a great dish of chilaquiles. We're going down there for breakfast, assuming they're open.

I watched fireworks last night with Gay Ellen Dennett, Ted Atwood, Tony and Suford Lewis, Rick Katze, Mark Olson, Claire and Dave Anderson, and Joe Ross. We walked over from the home of one of the local fannish abodes one of the Natick Mall parking lots and up onto the roof parking area of it. There were lots of other people there. Fireworks were sporadically visible from elsewhere than the show we'd come to see--one site was probably Wayland with an official display, while the others were probably Amateur Hours, which considered the number of cops around to direct traffic and such, seemed very stupid to me to be lighting off where cops could see and go investigate.

The fireworks display we'd come to see started late, but was very nice, with lots of "oohs!" and "ahhs!" The finale was impressive and had lots of audio gunfire=-like noises from the barrage of fireworks going up for the end, but a sad corner of my mind was thinking things along the lines of, "Maybe the Vietnam vets' reflexes won't have them diving for cover anymore, but here are still the Gulf War vets, and anyone who's recently back from Iraq. I'm glad that the sounds here are happy ones, of fireworks that are a delight to see and hear--but there are so many other people, that shot fire and bursts in the sky, are terrorism and warfare, not happy celebration."

Drugstores around here have hot/cold jell packs; microwavable to make them hot. Probably good for your hands. (Since I'm supposing that the new abode isn't provided with a bathtub vastly deep.)

If you can figure out how to lie on a couple that are in contact with your back just up and a little in from the inside bottom corner of your shoulderblades, I've found that very helpful in cases of the consequences of overlifting.

And the intermittent pins-and-needles is likely to be from anterior muscles (pectoralis major and minor, SCM, etc.) pulling the clavicle down on the big nerve there: stretching shoulders back may help a lot. This is particularly likely if it increases if you raise your hands above your head (strong indicator of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, which can be inconvenient if untreated). Consider finding a local hot tub place and sitting and steaming for an hour. Hot is good for stiff muscles, bad for inflammation.

You would have enjoyed the fireworks at Gary Mattingly and Patty Peters' place: lots of fanzine fans (Rich and Stacy, Lynn Kuehl and Cheryl Cline, David Bratman and Berni Phillips, the Davis/Floyd household, Spike and Tom, and many more). Not many serious pyrophiles, though: few wanted to set off the Evil Devices that were there (I proudly count myself among the pyrophiles, BTW).

We watched fireworks from the roof of Vonda's garage with Jane, Luke, Jerry, Suzle, Amy, Ed, Katie, Glenn, Kate, Victor, Marci, and Vonda of course. The Lake Union fireworks were among the very best I've ever seen with beautiful renditions of Saturn, weeping willow type things, all sorts of colors and special effects. Oh, and smiley faces. We had sparklers and a few low, ground effect sort of things to set off ourselves. I didn't blow any up myself because that would have involved getting down off the roof and then back up again and my knees wouldn't go for that. But they were fun too and I thought of you.

I'm glad to know you made it. And encouraged, too: we've been in this flat 9 years, and I'm pretty sure we'll be moving before we hit 10, even though I'm somewhat dreading it: we've simply run out of space for books. It's nice to know that there is life after relocation!

OK fireworks here at Westercon (Litchfield Park, AZ -- Phoenix westside.) Nothing like the Lake Union show of course, but we were very close so we could hear the car alarms applauding each loud explosion.

During the fireworks there was an IDIOT flying around in a small plane or helicopter, circling around the fireworks display. I saw the flashing beacon moving that indicated air vehicle going west to east behind the fireworks, and snarled, "there is an IDIOT flying around!" Ted Atwood though it was Medevac, saying that that was the flight path for Medevac helicopter flights, and a few minutes before there had been ambulance noises. But then, the vehicle turned south and kept going and turned west and kept going and turned north -- circling the fireworks. IDIOT.

I hope the idiot got caught and got grounded for a long, long, long time. Flying around in the vicinity of a fireworks display....

May your new home be more than good enough to make the move eventually seem worthwhile.

Was out spending the weekend within the walls of the Chautauqua Institution and would have seen artificial fireworks over L. Chautauqua except that the natural electrical flash and bang show led to the cancellation of the chemical one. Did get to here a nice chorus singing "America the Beautiful" as part of the evening sacred song program in the amphitheater.

Sorry we never met face-to-face at Westercon 57. I just got home, to Greater Los Angeles, after breaking my 5-hour record for the 360 miles door-to-door. Don't suppose you were at any of my 4 panels, or saw my Making Light note on that same fireworks display (different thread? Maybe Open Thread 24?), or my much earlier posting that any Making Light folks at Westercon track me down?

It was a good con. I look forward to CopperCon to see some of the same fine locals.

Paula - one of the fun parts of the New Year's fireworks on Sydney Harbour each year is watching the helicopters. They are there to cover the affair for world (& local) broadcasts.
I'm sure some of the spectators are betting that one year something nasty will happen.

Thank you all. I was going to have a long hot soak after doing some more unpacking, but the water's coming out brownish, and leaves a deposit of silt in the bottom of the tub. I can't think I should bathe in it. The landlord says he's on his way over.

Aside from that, I rejoice in a house that's susceptible to being kept clean.

Yesterday's activities included reassembling a kitchen counter that hadn't been seen in that configuration since we lived in Staten Island (the legs were being used for my desk, and the top was stashed in the basement). That was relatively minor. The big task was getting the bookshelves set up in the basement. If you imagine the asterisks are a wall and the other characters are bookshelves, it goes like this:

* __||__||__||__||__
***************************

A long board set on top of the bookshelves means I can stack the plastic tubs of yarn on top of the arrangement.

I had PT Friday, and I expected to get neck traction, as usual, but they had a new infrared device that noticeably softened my muscles in just the 30 seconds per muscle. The PT thinks I'll need all 10 treatments because my muscles are so clenched, but she says a lot of people who can't move limbs get well with just three or four treatments. Apparently this has been available in Europe and elsewhere for decades, but was just approved by the FDA this year. (She also gave me neck exercises and said to continue with gentle home neck traction -- I see her again tomorrow and Friday.)

I'm still wondering how expensive it would be to install floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, complete with a sliding ladder. I suspect that we'd already overflow them, but they'd be more attractive than the current IKEA specials.

[it also amuses me to think that my first association with "brass rail" was "library" not "strippers"]

Every knitter I have ever known in my entire life (and I've known good many knitters) keeps their yarn in plastic tubs in the basement. Including myself, when I had a basement. What did knitters do before plastic was invented, I wonder?

Wait a minute. Are you saying that your landlord has the spell of Calogird's Transcendent Perception of the Polychrome Skein? Because I know lots of people who would swap cochinegra and deodand bile for that.

I'm a crocheter, which must be why I keep my yarn in cardboard boxes in the workroom closet. (Anybody want a thread crochet book on Church Laces?)

BTW, I don't see it here, but Lydy posted on rasff asking for help because the NH's new basement is flooded, including fanzines, financial records, and other papers. I wonder if the brown water in the tub is related to the flood.

We mostly mentioned freeze-drying, but I don't know how practical that will be.

Jonathan Vos Post: Don't suppose you were at any of my 4 panels, or saw my Making Light note on that same fireworks display (different thread? Maybe Open Thread 24?), or my much earlier posting that any Making Light folks at Westercon track me down?

Didn't see the earlier posts -- we got back from France just in time to turn around to get to Phoenix -- but Linda and I did make one of your panels, the "NASA -- threat or menace?" one on Monday. Linda came up and spoke to you afterwards.

By golly, you're right! I do remember Linda speaking to me afterwards. It would be neat if moderator John Hertz typed up and posted his notes of the panel.

In that last panel, which had 2 experts on NASA money (albeit at universities), so devil's advocate, I acted explicitly as a prosecutor. I was arguing that NASA should be disbanded, some of its top officers jailed for negligent homicide, and its assets folded into a new organization with Warren Buffet as CEO. Attorney Hertz counted the audience/jury's votes: by 3-to-1 I'd persuaded them to adopt my radical suggestion!

If you voted for me, I thank you. If not, you still did your duty as pseudojurors.

John was VERY good as a moderator. Of course, I'm biased by his saying things such as "that was so colorful that I decline to rule you out of order." But he did keep order quite well, being both judicial and humorous. Plus, he understood all arguments and summarized them nicely.

Lydy posted on rasff asking for help because the NH's new basement is flooded, including fanzines, financial records, and other papers. I wonder if the brown water in the tub is related to the flood.

Shitohdear. I deeply hope that this is only a minor incident and not blow upon a bruise after the move.

Yes, freeze-drying is one way to handle soaked documentation, but it is not necessarily cheap. The main trick, as I understand it, is to get the paper into a commercial grade deep (0 to -40 F) freezer, or even better, a blast (-100 F) freezer, to stop the damage process. You can then choose the method of drying (vacuum freeeze-drying or dessicant) the materials at your comparative leisure. Here are a couple of links about this, including a UNESCO study : Vacuum freeze-drying, a method used to salvage water-damaged archival and library materials including this portion concerning low-cost options.

I work in a library and have some info on disaster response. I can either post some info here or send via email, if you need it.

As mentioned above, freezing is helpful; you can use Tyvec bags to keep wet items separate. There are official disaster recovery firms, but that can be quite pricey. There's also differences between "dirty" water damage and "clean" water damage. And special techniques for glossy pages of bound volumes, etc.

Also, keep the lights on all the time, as the ultraviolet or whatever kills mold spores.

Hope it's not as bad as it sounds. Many soothing and dry thoughts sent your way.

Here's hoping it's just the hot water heater failing... that could result in water on the floor as well as sludge running out of the tap... Though I haven't heard weather reports from out east and we've had a train of heavy weather that tends to track eastward.

It is generally not worth it to try to save flood-damaged materials (particularly if mildew has set in). The cost to recover is usually less than the cost to replace, unless one is dealing with unique items (letters, only copies of manuscripts, art).

If I can help you replace anything that's lost, either from my collections or from my contacts, just ask. After all, I'm currently trying to lighten my load of Owned Items....

Elizabeth vM saysAlso, keep the lights on all the time, as the ultraviolet or whatever kills mold spores.

How much use are standard lights in preventing mold? Only 7% of their energy makes it out of the IR; if they were any good at UV you should be able to get a tan out of them. Or is mold sensitive to visible light? (I wouldn't think spores would be -- they're ]evolved[ to be tough.)

Paula Murray, You were dead right. It was the water heater failing. Or, more precisely, the water heater's safety failing. There's this pipe that comes out of the top, does this couple of right angle things, and then points straight down at the floor. There's nothing at the end of that pipe.

When I came tearing downstairs in response to various sounds of distress, water was pouring out of that pipe at a rate that would do credit to a bathtub faucet on full. The water was warm, but not hot. I threw a lever, praying that nothing would blow up, and the water stopped. Water ran down the side of the basement where the bookcases were, spreading out to about one-third the width of the basement. Most of the book boxes were stacked down the middle of the basement, so it nailed many boxes on that side of the box stack.

At the far end of the basement, I think the water may have pooled to the depth of two inches. Far fewer boxes than feared were damaged. Since we got to the wet boxes almost as soon as they were flooded, there wasn't any mildew to deal with.

Most of the fanzines were saved. Some have slight water damage around the edges, but remain utterly legible. The worst damage was probably done to the humans. We were already tired when the crisis was upon us. Personally, I'd been at the Empire State building previously that day. When I'd been told to expect long lines, somehow I didn't understand that this meant two and some hours to get to the observation deck, and another half hour to get back down to street level. Standing in line hurts. I did get to finish The Last Unicorn, though. I haven't read it in many years. When I got back, I was dead tired, and my feet and back already hurt, then suddenly I was hurtling about the basement with heavy boxes of books, trying to find dry places for them.

All's well that ends well, I guess. Admittedly, all is not entirely well, but it's good enough. Perhaps tomorrow I'll spend some time wandering around Green-Wood. The company of dead people would be pleasant and restful, I think. I could take along my copy of A Fine and Private Place, and sit under a tree and read for a while.

I am extremely glad to hear that the damage was not severe, at least as the damage of floods is counted. (We had artesian water in the cellar of the farmhouse; this may have my sense of 'flooded basement' miscalibrated.)

I hope you get excellent weather for tomorrow, and that everyone gets a long stretch of days with only good surprises.

Oh, and a working water heater, very soon, so you can have showers and baths and stuff!

CHip, the suggestion is part of our disaster recovery procedures. It's written by a gang of preservation librarians. I could ask them for details and citations, but it might cost me an arm. They can be a cranky lot. But I've found them to be quite accurate at their jobs, so I generally take their word for it. I can ask a friendlier one when she gets back from vacation next week, if you're curious.

Mold is very sensitive to sunlight, that much I know from personal experience and testing on my own books. It can kill mold dead, even sometimes pretty heavy and long standing infestations.

Whew. Thanks Lydy, for keeping us informed. I'm considering which of the deities I don't believe in I could make most useful sacrifices to on their behalf. Perhaps you should try hard to find the martini shaker and the gin....

Well, on the bright side, it may mean you start off at your new place with a new water heater. I'm so glad it wasn't more.

Elizabeth VM --

All the disaster planning advice I was given when I "owned" some corporate data systems agrees with yours -- especially if you are using fluorescents. Every little bit helps during that first 48 hours before all the real damage starts.

Often the quick response is very important. I'm convinced that my recent experience with a Serious soft-tissue injury was much, much less serious because I chose immediately to apply appropriate first aid (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) rather than going off to an emergency room. It's not completely better, but I only had one day of complete non-functionality. The emergency room I went to (18 hours after the accident) suggested I might expect about two weeks of serious functional difficulty. I had about 72 hours.

"I'm considering which of the deities I don't believe in I could make most useful sacrifices to on their behalf. Perhaps you should try hard to find the martini shaker and the gin...."

MK, this implies that you believe in neither Cole Porter nor Nora Charles. And, as with all forms of disbelief, there -are- limits. (I'll let you get by without Dino Crocetti, but only by a little.)

And, Lydy, ascending and descending the ESB followed by this establishes perfectly that you have superpowers. (I would go into the notion that the Minneapolis Fantastic Four obviously live on Blaisdell, but the logical analogization thereof would make you Ben Grimm, so let's not go there. It's late anyway, would be past my bedtime if I ever had one.)

Lights are good; fans too. Keeping the air moving helps reduce the humidity so mold can't grow. And turn on the AC -- get it good and cold down there if possible. May I offer something I wrote back when a small library I worked at suffered a serious mold problem? It won't help with anything really water damaged, but it works for that light haze of mold that forms on books and other surfaces. http://www.archival.com/newsletters/apnewsvol4no1.pdf

Mike: Well of course I believe in Cole Porter and Nora Charles. (I even know that the Thin Man was not, in fact Nick Charles.) Perhaps I should have paragraphed between my deities remark and the gin and shaker remark. I didn't mean a connection between the two, merely that P&Tcould no doubt use a couple of martinis at this point. Maybe even 3 or 4.

ElizabethVomMarlo: I'd definitely be interested in hearing details; sunlight being effective doesn't surprise me, and fluorescents might help, but incandescent light has a much ]lower-energy[ spectrum. I also note that Janet's writeup speaks of open curtains and of taking the books outdoors.
I don't know if the benefit is worth even the trivial energy cost -- and I note the lights will raise the temperature, which is described as a Bad Thing when fighting mold.

One of these years I will try variations Dr. Beer's skunking experiment: two beers (from a "suitcase", so they were known not to be lightstruck beforehand) in green bottles; the one kept in the closet was no worse than the brand usually is, but the instant the one that got ~6 hours of direct sunlight was opened we could smell it from at least 5 feet away (due to blue-green light affecting sulfur bonds in the hop oils). Fluorescent light (such as found in stores) is also said to be damaging, but the experiment wasn't tried with any kind of artificial lighting.

Welcome to Making Light's comment section. The moderators are Avram Grumer, Jim Macdonald, Teresa & Patrick Nielsen Hayden, and Abi Sutherland. Abi is the moderator most frequently onsite. She's also the kindest. Teresa is the theoretician. Are you feeling lucky?

If you are a spammer, your fate is in the hands of Jim Macdonald, and your foot shall slide in due time.

Comments containing more than seven URLs will be held for approval. If you want to comment on a thread that's been closed, please post to the most recent "Open Thread" discussion.

You can subscribe (via RSS) to this particular comment thread. (If this option is baffling, here's a quick introduction.)